I have been receiving letters from a collection agency that I've ignored all this time. Recently they sent me an offer for a credit card where the balance could be what I owe to them. Here are portions of the letter:

Midland Credit Management, Inc. has made an arrangement with Jefferson Capital Systems, LLC, an affiliate of the marketer of the Embrace Visa card, to provide you with the opportunity to receive a no annual fee unsecured credit card account provided that you accept the terms of this offer.

If you accept the offer described in the enclosed materials, the remaining principle balance of your present debt referenced above will be transferrred to a new Embrace Visa account as the first transaction to your new account.

Once your remaining principle balance is transferred, Midland Credit Management, Inc. will no longer service your account. Consequently, by accepting this offer you can stop further phone calls from us regarding your debt. If you do no accept the enclosed offer, then your present debt will remain open with us for collection of the full balance including accumulated interest and fees, if applicable.

Q. How will credit bureaus know the status of my old charged-off balance?
A. When your principle balance is transferred, Jefferson Capital Systems, LLC will report your old account to the credit bureaus as paid in full if your debt was previously reported and may still be updated. Even if your old account cannot be reported, if someone asks, the creditor on your old account can tell them that you have satisfied your obligation.



Would you take this offer if you wanted to pay off this debt? It also says that I'd be transferring my old debt at a 0% APR for the life of the transferred balance. If I pay a certain amount within the first12 months, they'll give me a credit for what looks like about a third of what I owe. What would you do?

1. You would be renewing this debt into a brand new one, with a brand new SOL clock. How old is it?

__________________
Italy Bound 2009

Off the top of my head, I'd say 5 or 6 years old.

More than likely its already past the SOL for a lawsuit in your state (of course you would need to double check - a few states are that long), and it will fall off your credit report in 7 years.

Have you pulled your credit reports to see how the original creditor is reporting?

__________________
Italy Bound 2009

I have seen my credit reports earlier this year. I guess my conscious is telling me to pay this off but I'd really like to pay the original credit card company. Last time I tried to deal with them (a while ago) they wouldn't let me.

I had to deal with this situation before with Providian who then sold the collection to Midland, disputed the collections with the CA until they could provide sufficient proof, waited a month for a response, when they didn't respond I sent a second letter declaring the matter closed. Midland in turn sold the collection to another company so I disputed it again, waited the month it takes for them to provide me with proof, then sent the closure letter again. This worked for me. It was not deleted until recently but the statement on my report implies that it has been disputed and sold to another collector, had I had known to dispute it with the CRA it would have been deleted sooner but this was three years ago I just took a shot in the dark. This is just my experience with them. If Midland has the account I seriously doubt that they can provide a suffient papertrail to support their collection with the CRA's. Do not accept their offer it implies that you agree to the alleged debt.

hi,
i had the same scenario, and on a different thread a few years ago i said it was a good thing to settle in this manner.
it was with midland as well, and those folks are a bunch of A-holes if you ask me. cap 1 was the original creditor in my case, and it was very hard to dispute it off my report once everything was said and done.

if the SOL is almost up, you shouldn't do it.

the only good thing is that you do get a new pos tradeline, but you are stuck with a corresponding charge off, which is almost impossible to get deleted.
in my case, they forgave a portion of the old debt once i paid a certain percentage off, which was kind of cool.
i think it is better not to deal with collection agencies, because you have not only the original debt listed on your CR, but the collection agencies neg as well.

i think the only way it might be ok is if the debt is newer, that way you could build a new pos tradeline while you slowly get rid of the neg one over time.

in your case, i would do the old bbb atty general 1 2 punch complaint scenario since it is so close to the SOL.
this worked very well in my case.
file the complaint with both your states atty general, the one in the original creditors state, and the one in midlands state...what the hell file one in every state that begins with an l, h, w, and an n. that will get their attention!
most creditors start getting nervous when they get an official letter, it's just not worth their while to have to deal with a government agency harrassing them.

good luck!

I was searching and came across this thread which pertained to Midland Credit Mngmt. If I read correctly it is best to dv via the CRA in regards to their accounts?

Run, dont walk from this offer. It's about to fall off, this resets the clock and you will have to stare at it for another 7 years...